Overview

This is the eBook version of the printed book. If the print book includes a CD-ROM, this content is not included within the eBook version.

Read the following excerpt from Rethink, Key Concepts.

Previous methods for business improvement largely have been about optimization and improvement, and many of them have been very successful in helping people achieve dramatic, even revolutionary improvements. However, there hasn’t been a lens that not only enables, but encourages people to rethink not just their own work, but their entire operating model in their business ecosystem. That is why we have turned our focus to looking at “what” the work is before asking “how” it should be performed. I’ve included this concepts section as a useful quick reference to the basic ideas in this book to help you in your rethinking journey.

Conventional “How” Business Views

For much of the past century, people have looked at organizations through one of two lenses: a people view (the organization chart) or a financial view (spreadsheets, reports, profit and loss tables, and so forth). These are “how” views of the organization, in terms of “how” they currently are structured and organized, and “how” funds are budgeted and spent. Although these are valid tools and remain vital, they are often used in a way that limits the view of the person to the inside of the four walls of the organization. In today’s increasingly complex ecosystems of customer and partner relationships, those inward-facing views are insufficient. These views are rarely a good place to start when rethinking.

Process views can oft en traverse the artificial boundaries that are sometimes implied or created with the workflow view.